Perdition's Rest

by J. C. Placeres

  The two Tormos warriors nodded in agreement, excitement lighting up their faces at the prospect of wading into battle for the first time in many lifetimes. Vuurbin was still on the verge of unconsciousness and didn't appear to have the faintest idea of what was going on. Lorne glanced at Thelais, his wife flashing a loving smile at the high commander. Lorne's heart filled with joy at the sight of his wife. The quest thus far had been grueling, while they were together, the two had not had any opportunities to really talk alone. He missed being close to her, holding her and sharing her company in private. He had been so busy trying to protect the Red Empire in this harsh and barbaric land that he had not been paying as much attention to his wife as wanted to. He remembered back to Hope's Bastion and watching Worloh's charge from the watch tower. The images of his men galloping wholesale into slaughter, of Worloh's retreat in sheer panic and the disease-ridden undead arrows penetrating his holy flesh were all etched into Lorne’s mind. It had been Aun's will that the slaughter happened, and as the Three wished so would occur. The Southern Sun had led him here though at this most holy and important hour in Vesnian history. He was chosen for this purpose and he would lead the group to victory for the Three. He would not be denied his glory.

  "Every moment we do not return with the Heaven's Light is a failure on our part," said Lorne unsheathing his long sword. "Let us go forth into this unholy city and cut a path of righteousness through the wicked. Today we take the first step towards ensuring the future of our races."

  CHAPTER 11

  Ghosts of the Father

  A bright light streaked high into the air casting a warm glow as far as the eye could see. The eternal gloom and heavy darkness of the undead city was lit up for the first time in thousands of years. Sielan raised her arm high to cover her eyes. She had unknowingly become accustomed to the dark which caused the sudden radiant light to hurt her eyes. The water of the lake behind her rippled from the waterfall crashing down into it and the waves sent tendrils of light wafting across its glass like surface. The ball of fire arched through the air and its ascent began to slow in defiance of the laws of physics. Throughout the city the undead who lingered in the streets slowly craned their necks skyward, their ancient and flayed skin creaking and cracking from the movement, gazing at the curious spectacle that hung in the air.

  Thelais with eyes closed tight whispered words inaudible to anyone save Tulinda. Lorne stood close to his wife sweeping his gaze around their surroundings on the very outskirts of the ancient city. The pyromancer struggled, her body tensing, sweat slowly appearing on her brow as the fireball in the sky slowed to a complete stop but continued to grow larger and larger sucking in voluminous amounts of oxygen to fuel the raging inferno. Sielan thought of how untold millennia ago Aun, a burning ball of fire, sprang into existence from Nua's dark nothingness and imagined that event must have been similar to what she was currently witnessing.

  No one spoke a word for fear of interrupting Thelais' concentration. So deep were they in Nualn that the element of fire, which Thelais pulled her power from, was almost non-existent. The amount of effort Thelais had to exert to cast a large fire spell this deep underground was tremendous. Thankfully at the moment they were in no danger. The city proper began little more than fifty feet in front of them and no undead were currently near them. The group was largely obscured from view of the of the city by a forest of sickly green mushrooms and stalagmites which grew around the lake. The pyromancer took in a deep breath and opened her eyes wide. Thelais exhaled and the sky exploded. The meteor that hovered above the city erupted in a furious tempest of destruction. The shards of the meteor careened downwards, all aimed directly at the main street before them which was the quickest route to the shard of Heaven's Light. Molten fragments rapidly plummeted and when they struck the ground chaos erupted. The hordes of undead that were lingering in the streets were obliterated upon impact, their brittle bodies being blown into pieces, some simply disintegrated from the heat, others caught aflame and fell to the ground as the magical fire swept through the surrounding city blocks annihilating anything in its wake.

  The Tormos turned away as the heat from the fiery tempest reached them. Thelais suddenly blacked out from the exhaustion of summoning so much fire this deep underground, a trickle of blood leaking from her nostrils. Lorne caught his beloved before she hit the floor and gently passed her unconscious body to Tulinda and Sielan who each put one of Thelais arms over their shoulders for support.

  "This is it, Thelais has cleared the way, move fast and stay close!" Lorne shouted at the group as he began the charge into the main street which was still aflame. The group moved out in a predetermined formation with Lorne, Corvul, Zeranidul and Gowinda forming a square. In the middle of the four warriors were Sielan, Thelais, Tulinda and Vuurbin. Corvul made sure to always stay near Vuurbin. Once in the city proper all of them jogged at a brisk pace avoiding the largest sections of the burning tempest. While the Phlebos could easily pass through the magical flame, the Tormos would have been burned alive. Some of the buildings lining the street were toppled from the explosions, but most remained. The goal of the meteor was not to destroy the way but to clear out the immediate undead that obstructed a quick run to the shard.

  Some undead still crawled in the streets, clicking their jaws as the fire burned away the last manifestations of their physical forms, the Vesnian warriors cutting off their heads as they writhed in the streets. On a few occasions an undead would shamble out of a building but the horror quickly got dispatched by Vesnian steel. Sielan breathed heavy and sweated profusely from the exertion of having to run while carrying half a person. The historian raised her head and looked into the distance; it appeared as if they had already covered ten blocks and now had roughly ten more to go before hitting the street that would take them to the far cave wall and the shard. She prayed to the Three that they make it the rest of the way before the hordes from an adjoining street made it over to the avenue they were running down.

  A hand grabbed Sielan's ankle and she almost fell. From a pile of smoldering rubble an undead had reached out and grabbed her. Sielan shrieked, she would have grabbed her dagger but holding Thelais made it impossible. The ancient horror used her as leverage to pull itself out of burning rubble, its yellow and rotten mouth reaching to bite into her leg when a sword flashed and penetrated the corpse's skull. Sielan turned her head and saw Corvul glance at her, the commander gave her a wink and jumped back out to the perimeter of the square formation to ensure no undead penetrated their ranks.

  Sielan looked up once more and saw only three more blocks remained. Knowing the distance was so short Sielan felt a rush of adrenaline and suddenly Thelais didn't feel so heavy. The historian looked down, closing her eyes to focus on carrying the pyromancer. When she looked up again only two blocks remained. Suddenly a violent shutter echoed through the ground causing the group to stop. The party members were forced to kneel and stabilize themselves against the quake that violently reverberated through the city.

  "Brace yourselves!" Lorne shouted the warning as the rumbling continued to grow stronger.

  "What is it?!" Zeranidul yelled the question aloud so that the others could hear it over the rumbling and creaking of the tall buildings around them.

  Tulinda was on all fours while still supporting Thelais' unconscious body. She glanced over to Zeranidul and shouted back to him. "Thelais' explosions weakened the structural integrity of the ground; it's giving way and I can't stop the collapse, it's on too massive of a scale."

  As she finished her sentence a thundering cacophony of sounds drowned out everything as the entire city block directly to their left collapsed. The ancient brick buildings swallowed up by a growing dark pit. Clouds of debris from the quickly vanishing buildings shot up into the air as the structures buckled. The ground the Vesnians stood on shifted and physically rose higher into the air, the street fracturing in multiple places. The paved segment directly in front of them dipped and then slid down, falling into the
expanding chasm that was sucking down everything in its path.

  With no way to go forward as the path had collapsed into nothingness, Lorne saw only one other route besides retreating to the lake. "Everyone get into the building!" Lorne cried the command as he braced himself against the unstable ground and dashed for the first building immediately to their right, a large structure made from brick. A wooden door worn down by the ages which barely hung on its hinges barred their way. The high commander barreled into the door, splintering the fragile wood into a hundred pieces. He collapsed into the building, his comrades trailing in behind.

  "Keep going!" Corvul yelled to Lorne as the commander raced ahead blindly through a doorway into an adjoining room. Lorne picked himself up and glanced back towards the doorway. The street outside which they were just on fractured and then free fell into nothingness. The ancient building they were in shook violently, the floorboards above their heads shattered and caused dust and debris to fall from the ceiling. He saw how exhausted Sielan and Tulinda were and knew they couldn't go much further.

  "Run! Follow Corvul, I'll carry Thelais for now." The two women nodded as Lorne bent down and picked Thelais up in his arms. Following the two females he dashed into the next room, his wife's body held securely in his loving arms. The next room was a long hallway, some of the boards from the second floor had already collapsed and hindered their progression. Windows lined the wall to their left, the glass that once covered them having long ago been broken. What Lorne saw outside caused his heart to skip a beat: a massive horde of undead. The commotion of the group barreling through the hall had fully caught their attention and the horde was shambling towards them, their decomposed arms reaching through the window openings and grasping for the living Vesnians.

  "Keep going, keep going!" Lorne continued to shout as he heard more wood and bricks cracking as the whole building was shifting. They pushed through the hall finding themselves in another connecting room. An undead appeared from around the corner and grabbed for Corvul who was leading the charge through the collapsing structure. Corvul pushed the skeletal creature back, arching his sword in the process and lopping off its head, the rest of its body toppling thereafter. A doorway stood on the opposite side of the room and the group rushed through into a small alley way. They turned left and ran onto the street that was full of undead. The horde, previously preoccupied at crawling through the shattered windows, switched direction and began moving towards the Vesnians who were now out in plain sight. In a fortuitous turn of events, the street the party now found themselves on continued to buckle and a large swath of the undead horde fell into the growing void as the road collapsed. The building the Vesnians had just exited suddenly groaned loudly and quickly crumbled, the shattered remnants of the structure descending into the pit.

  They were one block away from the road they needed to be on to reach the Heaven's Light, however the outer wall of the building on the opposite side of the street from them cracked and collapsed from the reverberations, crashing into the alley they were headed towards and blocking their clear path to the next street over. Out of the billowing dust from the partially collapsed building Lorne could hear more undead shambling into the street out of its bowels.

  "Head down this avenue, we have to find another alley way that leads to the next street over, Zeranidul and Gowinda take point!" Lorne yelled the command as the group began trotting further down their present street. He temporarily handed Thelais back off to Sielan and Tulinda as he and Corvul stayed in the rear to hold back the horde which was hot on their heels. Two undead lunged at him and he quickly back peddled away. He kicked one of them causing it to fall backwards into several more that trailed close behind. The whole pile of tumbling undead cascaded off into the nothingness of the crumbling street that was advancing towards them as well, still sucking down more and more human corpses as it grew. The other pursuing undead reached for him, the flesh and muscles on the creature’s arms had completely disintegrated, nothing but yellow bones remained. The sharp boney fingertips penetrated his animal furs and bit into his arm, he could feel blood begin to pour out warming his furs. The undead latched on and pressed the attack, it was too close to fight with his long sword. He continually retreated away from both the encroaching horde of undead and the growing pit while his good hand pushed at the neck of the corpse. The horror's jaw clacked as it bit at him, the flesh on its face having been reduced to brittle parchment that cracked as he pushed against it.

  He knew he couldn't keep moving backwards, soon the entire group of undead would be on him or he would find himself tumbling into nothingness. He spun around while holding onto the vile creature and then violently shoved it away. It stumbled backwards awkwardly and fell crashing onto its back. Lorne quickly darted forward and brought his boot down hard obliterating the creature’s empty skull, all brain matter having long ago decomposed. Lorne grabbed his wounded arm and broke into a full run. Two blocks down the road the Tormos warriors had found an open alleyway leading to their destination, the next street over, and were motioning to the rest of the group. Lorne looked behind him and saw Corvul following closely at a full run, the handsome officer had several scratches on his face which were bleeding. The tremors slowly began to lessen, and the ground appeared to be stabilizing. The way back though was largely gone; an untold number of city blocks had fallen deeper below the crust of the planet. The vast human ruins now boasted a massive crater of pure darkness and unknown depth.

  The two wounded Phlebos warriors turned and entered the alley having finally caught up to the group. Zeranidul and Gowinda were already on the next street over. Lorne looked behind him, the way back was already blocked as the pursuing horde was spilling into the alley after them. The speed of the undead mass had slowed though as the corpses bottle necked into the narrow passage. Lorne exited the alley and found himself out in the open again on the new street. He looked to his left and felt his soul break; an even larger group of undead was heading towards them. He glanced across the street to the next alley over and saw undead pouring out from that path. There was nowhere to run save to the right, what Lorne assumed was south, towards the piece of Heaven's Light embedded into the cave wall at the end of the street.

  "Go," gasped Lorne motioning away from the converging armies of undead. "We can't fight them anymore, to the Heaven's Light! Run!"

  The group turned en masse, Lorne grabbed his wife from Sielan and Tulinda and collectively ran as fast as they could. From each building and alley they streaked past, more and more corpses shambled out. Lorne focused on the cave wall coming closer and closer, he could clearly see the metallic object embedded in the wall, but it no longer reflected light as it had from afar. This was the end Lorne suddenly realized, he had led them all to doom. Even if they reached the Heaven's Light there was no escape. They were trapped by thousands of undead hot on their heels and even if they did somehow fight off an army of the dead, almost the entire way back had collapsed. If they miraculously survived the encounter they would need to head deeper into the ancient city and hope to find shelter or another way out.

  "I'm sorry," Lorne quietly whispered in Thelais ear. "I'm sorry," he whispered to the Three far above. He was not good enough for the Three to grant him glory; this city was to be his tomb and punishment for not living up to the expectations of the Three. The group slowed to a halt, all of them panting and gasping for air. They had reached the end of their journey, the cave wall with the Heaven's Light shard embedded into it. Behind him was a cacophony of screams, hisses and shuffling feet emanating from the endless wave of death. Lorne looked to the wall as did everyone else and any last bit of hope they had was obliterated. The shining metal objected embedded in the wall loomed before them. It was split in two halves down the middle, one side of it hanging from rusted hinges. It was a metal door.

  It wasn't the Heaven's Light; it was a giant double door made of steel that had been reflecting the light from the green mushrooms growing around it. The Heaven's Light was not to b
e found; they had been led to their deaths on a fool's errand. All of them stared at the double doors, the full reality of what was about to occur weighing heavy. Lorne could hear the horde getting closer and closer, but he didn't bother turning around, he knew what was about to become of them. This was the destiny the Three had envisioned for him, a futile and meaningless death in the darkest part of the world, his fate never to be known to the masses.

  Sielan sprang forward towards the door grabbing Corvul's arm and pulling him with her. "Everyone come on! We don't have to die here! Everyone through the breach!"

  The historian grabbed the door that was hanging on loose hinges and, with Corvul's help, pried open the barrier further. Lorne ran forward, Thelais hanging flaccidly in his arms, and passed through the narrow doorway into complete darkness. Gowinda was the last one through the door and as he slipped through the undead mass slammed into the passage. Zeranidul and Gowinda stood at the doorway stemming the tide, hacking and slashing at the undead as they tried to pass into the room through the narrow bottle neck.

  "We have to do something! We can't fight them forever!" Gowinda yelled as he dodged a skeletal arm and swung back with one of his axes, a boney limb flying into the darkened room. Tulinda, still breathing heavy from where she had collapsed on the floor, struggled to her feet. She turned to her two Tormos compatriots and shouted with what breath she had left. "Both of you move now!"